Nothing Like It!

Nothing like it! I’ve been nursing for five decades. I’ve been nursing in withdrawal management since 1989. I was asked last week what sort of changes I’ve seen since I started working in detox facilities.

And there has been nothing like it. From Saskatchewan to Texas to British Columbia there has always been alcohol abuse at the top of the list. The list of the substances that kill has grown longer and more deadly. Cocaine, crystal meth, heroin in all their many forms. Smoking, snorting, IV drug use and just plain pills. Pills. Pills like oxycodone, hydromorphone and now fentanyl. Did I forget to mention all the benzodiazipines?

Everyone of these drugs, and in whatever form, have a certain withdrawal syndrome. When they’re mixed, the withdrawal syndrome is confusing and more dangerous. Some people actually survive. Some may have their lives saved, but their bodies and brains are damaged. Damage that is reversible or damage with long lasting consequences. And too many people of any age die. They just die.

Controlling drugs and alcohol has not stopped the use and development of more refined drugs and alcohols. In all of this mess, where are the studies, research and treatment for addiction and the medical effects of substance abuse? Short stay in a detox is barely a bandaid. Long stays to give the body, psyche and brain a chance to heal are what is really needed. My only satisfaction as a detox nurse is to help someone survive to live another day whether the services are out there or not. I depend on each individual to navigate our myriad of inadequate systems.

There has been nothing like it. Who do I blame? All of us. Our health care systems, our pharmaceutical companies, our families, our very cultures. Am I angry? I don’t have time to be angry when I am shepherding a youngster, a mom or a dad, or sometimes even a grandparent through a complex withdrawal. At some point, these dangerous, toxic substances trump survival.

“We’d stared into the face of Death, and Death blinked first. 

You’d think that would make us feel brave and invincible. It didn’t.”

~ Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave